Critical condition and transient evolution of methane detonation extinction by fine water droplet curtains

TL;DR

This study uses detailed numerical simulations to analyze how fine water droplet curtains can inhibit and prevent methane detonation re-ignition, revealing the mechanisms behind detonation suppression.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed numerical analysis of methane detonation extinction by water curtains, highlighting the effects of droplet size, water loading, and the mechanisms of inhibition.

Findings

Water curtains can prevent detonation re-ignition after quenching.

Convective heat transfer by droplets is key to detonation suppression.

Critical curtain length depends on water loading and droplet size.

Abstract

Two-dimensional numerical simulations with Eulerian-Lagrangian method and detailed chemical mechanism are conducted to study the methane detonation propagation across a water curtain with finite thickness. The critical length of the water curtain with sprayed droplets is determined through parametric simulations with different water mass loadings and droplet sizes. The influence of water curtain length on the methane detonation is examined by the trajectories of peak pressure and time history of average heat release rate. The results indicate that the water curtain not only inhibit the incident detonation wave, but also prevent the detonation re-ignition after the incident wave is quenched. Moreover, unsteady response of gaseous methane detonation to water curtain are analyzed. The detonation re-initiation process behind the water curtain near the critical loading is also captured. In addition, mechanism of detonation inhibition with fine water droplets are discussed. It is found that energy and momentum exchanges start immediately when the detonation wave enters the water curtain area, but the mass transfer starts well behind the detonation wave due to the finitely long droplet heating duration. It is shown that the convective heat transfer by water droplets plays a significant role in quenching a detonation.